Tips, Bugs and Troubleshooting

Tips

Running GMMPS

Do not run the GMMPS in the background if displaying it from a remote host. If the connection to the
host fails, or other similar problems arise, then unusual errors occur in
Skycat. It is safer/easier to just run the software in the foreground.

At the bottom of each of the Skycat windows there is a grey information
icon. This displays additional information about the function of the button/window
that the cursor is pointing to.

Do not use an Object Table with an extra "." in its name. This confuses
the software such that when it attempts to append the "ODF" to the file
name when the mask is created.

Image Display

When the image is first displayed, the intensity levels are usually
not automatically set correctly. To adjust the color scale of the image,
go to "View - Cut levels" on the main menu. This will open a window in which
it is possible to adjust the intensity levels of the pixels. For instance,
if the intensity level is too low, then to increase the level, change the
"Auto set" from 100% to 98%. This changes the fraction of pixels that are
within the cut levels. Then close the pop-up window as desired. Also, one
could use the "low" and "high" rectangle at the bottom of the right panel
(above the "Auto Set Cut Levels" button).

To zoom-in on the image, click on the large "Z" button to the bottom-left
of the screen. Similarly, to zoom out of the image, click on the small "z"
button.

To clear the slits from the image, click the "Clear Slits" button
in an ODF catalog window with the blue menu bar. This is
the only way to clear the slits.

To clear the symbols from the image, click the "Clear Symbols" button from an OT catalog window with the red menu bar. You may also go to the main menu of the Skycat
window and select "Graphics - Clear". This WILL NOT, however, clear the
slits from the image.

To clear the image and all graphics, in the main menu of the
Skycat window, select "File - Clear".

Object Management

To force the algorithm to choose objects that are required
in the mask, it is often useful to ignore lower-priority objects (priority "Ignore
Object" or X) if they are preventing higher-priority objects from being selected.

Do not manually edit the catalog file (*.cat) - always
manipulate the FITS Object Table file; e.g. mask_OT.fits. Manipulating
the .cat files can easily make them invalid, with the changes not being
translated into the minimal ODF files. These are simply temporary files.

Remember that the mask making software starts to assign objects
based on a specific algorithm. Care should
be exercised to make sure that objects are chosen as the user wants them chosen.

The software does check to see that sufficient valid acquisition objects have
been chosen and will give a warning in the mask design window (gmmps_spoc) if there are less than 2 acquisition objects in the mask.
However, it will not prevent the creation of these mask designs. A submitted mask design WILL NOT PASS THE GEMINI CHECKS if
less than 2 acquisition objects are selected clear of the GMOS CCD gaps. Gemini
cannot accept masks with less than 2 acquisition objects, since these are required
to align the mask on the sky.

Bugs

There are currently no known bugs in v0.402.

A
bug in GMMPS v0.304 will prevent changes to the priorities unless the
column "slittilt" is present in the object table. You can add the
slittilt column using the IRAF tasks app2objt, stsdas2objt (see here), or tcalc (see here).

The search functionality in v0.30X, with columns set through "Options -- Set Search Columns..."
does not work correctly.

The slit placing algorithm in v0.30X does not correctly place priority 2 and 3 objects close to acquisition
objects. If you have trouble getting the software to place a priority 2 or 3 object
close to an acquisition object, try changing its priority to 1.

Troubleshooting

After you have selected "Make Mask Files" and the window showing the
division of objects into the masks appears, you may observe that a lot of
text appears in the pop-up window that appears, similar to below (see the
writing starting from Acq Object...). This tells you that there
are too many acquisition objects selected. Go back to catalog window and
ensure that the number of acquisition objects is less than 10.

If you find after loading the Object Table, that the symbols are not overlaid
over the displayed image, it is probably because the Object Table (e.g.
mask_OT.fits) does not match the image file.

When in doubt...exit Skycat and then start the software again.

Last update June 5, 2013; Mischa Schirmer and Bryan Miller
In original form February 10, 2003; Dione Scheltus